


The Daniel Version

by nagi_schwarz



Series: Comment Fic 2016 [81]
Category: Stargate Atlantis, Stargate SG-1
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-25
Updated: 2016-09-25
Packaged: 2018-08-17 07:59:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,933
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8136353
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nagi_schwarz/pseuds/nagi_schwarz
Summary: Written for the comment_fic prompt: "Stargate SG-1/SGA, Daniel Jackson/John Sheppard, the universe where Daniel joined the first Atlantis expedition and became part of the extended Team Sheppard."





	

John liked Jackson because Sumner hated him. Sumner was the kind of man who liked his subordinates in neat little categories where they could be roped off and boxed up for easy management. But Jackson wasn't his subordinate, and Jackson didn't fit into any neat category. Where Sumner was a career soldier, Jackson had over a decade of gate experience, and Jackson had spent a good decade of that experience managing Colonel O'Neill. John suspected Jackson wasn't fooled by John's cocky dumb-jock pilot act any more than he'd been fooled by O'Neill's version of the same, but Jackson respected John's privacy, and when John made a smart-assed comment demonstrating his own ignorance, Jackson played right off of it. If John could light it up, Jackson could read it. Jackson was useful when it came to talking to the natives on Athos. Jackson was useful in convincing Weir to let Sheppard and some Marines rescue Sumner after he was captured by the Wraith. And Jackson was a damn fine liar, telling Weir he'd been the one to shoot Sumner when it was clear Sumner needed mercy while the Wraith was feeding on him. When John tried to talk to him about it, Jackson said, "The soldiers already hate me, because Sumner hated me. Now that you're in command, they won't hate you. It's what's best for the Expedition." John could appreciate a man who did what was best for the people around him, no matter what it cost him. But he worried about that man, too. And if he and Jackson ended up trading heroically suicidal stunts, well, they were a team. And if kissing Jackson was what it took to make him shut up during an emergency – well, maybe it was time to start calling him Daniel.  
  
Rodney was pretty sure Jackson still hated him after he'd nearly gotten Teal'c killed that time he was stuck in the gate. Or maybe because he'd called Samantha Carter a dumb blonde. Rodney didn't think much of the soft sciences, because they weren't really science. They were bundles of guess work dressed up in pretty words and trotted out as theories. But Jackson wasn't just a scientist. He was also a soldier. He was confident and more than competent with his firearms. When Sheppard used his soldierly hand-signals in the field, Jackson responded just as automatically as Ford or any of the other Marines. When a twig snapped in the trees, Jackson didn't cringe; he wheeled around and raised his weapon, moving to protect Rodney just like Ford and Sheppard and Teyla did. Jackson wore the blue patches of a scientist, but he wasn't really one of them, and Rodney wondered if, after over a decade going through the gate, Jackson was a soldier in scientist's clothing, if Rodney should be afraid of him in a way he'd always been a little afraid of Carter. The first time Jackson stepped between Rodney and a Wraith and tried to talk it down from killing the both of them, Rodney thought he was incredibly stupid, but also incredibly brave. The first time Jackson told a Marine to shut up and listen to Rodney so they wouldn't all die, Rodney thought maybe Jackson didn't hate him after all, and it might be safe to like him.  
  
Teyla knew Daniel Jackson was well-meaning, but his endless questions about her people are her culture were probably better addressed to someone older and wiser, like Halling. He did make her stop and think, though, about certain aspects of her culture that she had assumed were universal to human-kind, like the fact that on his planet, children learned to walk at a later age but spoke at an earlier age. "It's all about a culture's values," he said. "We teach our children more valuable skills first." The nice thing about Daniel was that he could explain his own culture well. When John sat her down to watch football, she was baffled. When Daniel explained that the rules of the game were less important than the pride of affiliation one felt when one's team prevailed over another, John's enthusiasm for the running men in the strange clothing was less freakish and more endearing. The best thing about Daniel, though, was the way he could enjoy a cup of tea in perfect, serene silence, and say nothing all the way through a sunrise.

Aiden liked Jackson. If not for his glasses, he could easily be mistaken for a soldier. He ran in the morning with Sheppard. He lifted weights in the afternoon with Aiden, mission schedule allowing. He practiced his bantos rods with Teyla faithfully. Sure, sometimes he chattered a little too much, and sometimes he and McKay had epic arguments, and more than once he'd gotten distracted by some shiny ruin or relic and nearly wandered off a cliff or into a pit. But he was a good guy to have at your back in a fight. Jackson had a crazy good memory, too. He remembered everything Aiden had ever said to him, would ask about his grandparents, his cousin Lora, his life growing up. He'd let Aiden ramble on long after anyone else would have stopped listening, and then weeks later, he'd ask a follow-up question about a random anecdote Aiden had told, and Aiden knew he'd listened. Even when Rodney was trying to tell him he was crazy for taking the Wraith enzyme, Jackson listened.  
  
Elizabeth had wanted Daniel for the Expedition from day one, because in some ways it was his expedition. He was the one who found the gate address for Atlantis. He was the one who knew the Ancient language and culture, as well as a fair bit of their technology from a layperson's standpoint. He spoke every language she did, which made for good polyglot banter now and again, and he respected her civilian status, sometimes siding with her against Sheppard where Rodney had a tendency to side with Sheppard every time (if only because Sheppard usually sided with him right back). Elizabeth had been a bit worried about sending Jackson on a gate team, let alone Sheppard's, because Sheppard was younger, had far less gate team experience. But Daniel accepted Sheppard's military leadership with startling aplomb (and maybe she should have looked at that more closely, seeing how Daniel had shot Colonel Sumner). Daniel was good at mediating between Rodney and the other scientists, too. He was invaluable to the expedition. Elizabeth hoped Earth and the Milky Way were getting along all right without him.  
  
Ronon thought Daniel was an okay guy. Decent enough in combat. Knew his stuff. Talked too much sometimes, like Rodney, but he got the job done. He understood what it was like, to have lost a wife to hostile alien forces. He was less skeptical of trying new things, like Satedan combat games. He also knew immediately when Ronon was making things up to mess with John and Rodney, who were occasionally chagrined into being more culturally sensitive by Daniel's sighing and Teyla's patient looks. The best thing about Daniel, though, was that he didn't tell on Ronon when he knew Ronon was making things up. He just went along with it like it was a perfectly normal act of a peaceful explorer to try an alien tradition. And he was a good enough actor to not laugh when Rodney and John tried to join in and looked like total idiots.

For about two seconds, John reminded Daniel of Jack. It was the cocky dumb-jock pilot act, the insolence in every strand of his crazy hair, his charming little smirk-smile. But he wasn't Jack. He was John. He was just as brave, just as reckless for his team, but he was also refined in little ways that spoke of being raised with money (the way he held his knife and fork continental style), and he was a little too quick with math that should have been beyond him, and he was a little more open with his feelings. Just a little. Enough that one day, he actually gave in and kissed Daniel.  
  
Rodney had less hair than Daniel remembered. Was just as loud and brash and arrogant. Daniel had the sense that the exasperation he got from working with Rodney was the exasperation Jack and Kowalski and Feretti had felt when first working with him, so he decided to give Rodney another chance. And Rodney was brilliant, almost as brilliant as Sam (in some ways more brilliant than Sam, because he didn't have that military training that made him question his own initiative). Most of all, Rodney was part of the team, and it was Daniel's job to help protect him, for the benefit of Atlantis. If that meant stepping in between him and an armed Wraith, so be it. The Wraith were more linguistically advanced than the Unas. Daniel had to give negotiation a shot. For science, of course. And not for friendship.  
  
Teyla made Daniel miss Teal'c fiercely. She had his same inner serenity, his same grace in battle. She was just as much a warrior, but also just as much a diplomat, the diplomat Teal'c had been struggling to be ever since the Jaffa Free Nation was established. She was patient about answering his questions about her culture, and even more patient about teaching him to use bantos rods (and she didn't condescend to him, being impressed when he demonstrated a modicum of physical coordination). Also, she made really great tea.

Aiden reminded Daniel of a foster brother he'd once had: dark-skinned, bright-eyed, endlessly energetic, and unbelievably enthusiastic. Aiden was a brand new Marine, selected especially for the expedition, with no prior gate experience. He was a good soldier, listened to John, kept his cool in the field. He wasn't jaded by his time in the program yet, hadn't lost the wonder of alien worlds. And he had a family back home, talked about his grandparents and cousin Lora often. And he listened as well as he talked, so when the Wraith enzyme started to poison him, Daniel still had hope.  
  
Elizabeth Weir was a damn impressive woman. She'd handled some of the most complicated negotiations in the history of humanity in all its forms, from all its planets, and she'd done great things for the SGC. Daniel had been leery of her for the two seconds she'd been leader of the SGC, because his loyalty was to his commanding officers (even though he was a civilian and technically had no commanding officers), but here, as the leader of Atlantis, she was perfect. She shared his wonder of (and occasional frustration with) the Ancients. Her goal was not solely military, not solely an expansion of power to defend Earth. It was about learning and reaching out, and with her at the helm, Daniel was sure humanity could reach further than ever before. Also, she played a mean game of chess, and could swear in German better than Zelenka could swear in Czech.  
  
Ronon was everything Daniel had imagined Teal'c was like in his youth: taciturn, quick to answer anything with violence, but introspective and perceptive, always watching and learning. His sense of humor was just as understated as Teal’c’s, but in a different way. When Ronon said something was a cultural tradition, he got a certain gleam in his eye if he was lying, and Daniel was curious to see how far he’d go. He went pretty far, but never too far. And he always had Daniel’s back in a fight, so Daniel had his back in a prank.


End file.
